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Conjectural Plan of Early Saxon Church 35 Doorway of Chapter-House 39 Corbel in Chapter-House 40 Boss in Chapter-House 41 Choir, from the Old Cemetery 42 Tom Tower 44 Western Entrance and Bell Tower 45 Plan 52 Early English Moulding 54 Nave and Choir, looking East 55 Pulpit 58 Choir and Nave, looking West 59 From the North Transept 66 Clerestory Window in the South Transept 69 Third Capital of the Choir 72 Capitals of the Choir 73 Tracery of the Roof 77 Lady Montacute's Tomb 91 Ornament from a Tomb 95 The "St. Cecilia" Window 99 Window in the Latin Chapel 103 Section of the Interior before the Restorations 107 The Exterior in 1857 113 The Interior before the Restorations 123 Arms of the College 136

CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.

The "Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford" has had a somewhat unfortunate history. Built for the small monastery of St. Frideswide, with no thought of any ampler destination, it was in the sixteenth century raised to the rank of a cathedral, just after it had been reduced in size by the destruction of the bays of the nave, and sunk out of sight among a mass of college buildings. Nor was this all the indignity it suffered; for it had also to do duty as the chapel of the new academic foundation which Wolsey established, and very soon the cathedral was forgotten in the college chapel. So neglected was it that Britton wrote at the beginning of the present century—"It is very common for visitors, and even those of rather refined and critical minds, to leave Oxford without examining the building now under notice." A century earlier Browne Willis had been content to make the astounding observation: "'Tis truly no elegant structure."

The first church on this site was that built by St. Frideswide, "The Lady," as she was afterwards called in Oxford, and her father Didan, about the year 727. The story of this saint, which no visitor to her church should omit to read, will be found in our chapter on the History of the Foundation.

A contemporary of the Venerable Bede, she was one of those noble and devoted souls who (as Dr. Jessopp reminds us) made Anglo-Saxon monasticism the brightest spot in the history of English community-life. The monks and nuns of that period were in fact missionaries, who spread the Christian faith among the half-civilised pagani, or country-folk; and, by the wise method of planting themselves in remote districts, and quietly living the gospel they preached, touched the